


check your soul at the door

by My_King_And_Your_Lionheart



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, But Some Clones, Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, No Aliens, Polyamory, Pre-Poly Team, The rating is for Artemis's language, Young Justice Big Bang 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22324894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart/pseuds/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart
Summary: Look, Dick Grayson just wanted to fight crime, do his homework, and get to bed at a reasonable hour. No matter what Wally says, it was not his idea to infiltrate a group of thugs who used Separation as a tactic to make new meta-genetic teens. No, that one was almost definitely Kaldur. And it also wasn't his plan to date almost all of the people he teamed up with. That one, Dick swears, was Wally.
Relationships: Artemis Crock & Dick Grayson & Kaldur'ahm & Kon-El | Conner Kent & M'gann M'orzz & Wally West, Clone Roy Harper | Will Harper/Kaldur'ahm, Kaldur'ahm/Wally West, Kaldur’ahm & M’gann M’orzz & Raquel Ervin & Wally West & Zatanna Zatara
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37
Collections: 2019 Young Justice Big Bang





	check your soul at the door

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, a huge, resounding thank you to the mods for the YJ Big Bang!! Second, a huge thanks to my betas, gnomewithalaptop and notthecognac !! Third, hope y'all enjoy the fic!

Richard Grayson is a very normal kid, thank you very much. He’s got a blue-throated nightingale for a soul, and he was adopted at 9 years old by Bruce Wayne after his parents were killed in a circus accident. Or, a circus “accident”. He goes to Gotham Academy and is getting A’s in all of his classes, and practices gymnastics in his private gym at home after school. He also puts on a colorful suit and a domino mask and kicks total ass some nights, but only if he’s gotten all of his homework done already. So, yeah, a totally normal kid.

“Alfred, that hurts!” Totally normal kids also get stitched up by their butlers, right? Dick sure hopes so, otherwise he might not be so normal after all. “That is not asterous, okay?”

“Yes, Master Richard, I understand.” Alfred didn’t hesitate to continue stitching Dick’s left shoulder up, but he did allow his tabby cat to nestle next to Dick’s thigh and start to purr. Dick clenched his hands into fists in his lap. Caliste was fluttering over their heads, letting out a sharp trill every time Dick winced. He called to her and she settled in his lap, pecking at his hands until they uncurled to hold her. “Have you finished all of your homework for the night?”

“Yeah.” Dick bit back another wince, tightening his fingers around Caliste. “I had it done before patrolling tonight. And besides, tomorrow’s Friday.” Next to him, Anneáll purred louder just as Alfred tied up the last of the stitches. 

“Well, then, Master Richard, I do believe it is time for you to go to sleep.” Anneáll leapt down from Dick’s side and wound her way around Alfred’s legs. “I will tell Master Bruce that you are ready for school tomorrow. Friday though it may be.” Dick reached to put his pajama shirt on.

“Hey, Alfred?” The older man turned in the door way, one hand on the handle.

“Yes, Master Richard?” Caliste let out a soft warble.

“Can I ask you a question?” Alfred turned to more solidly face Dick, Annéall sitting down next to his feet.

“You just have, Master Richard, but I have a feeling you have more.” Alfred’s smile was gentle in the late hour, but Dick couldn’t help twisting his fingers tightly in his sheets.

“Have you heard about the missing kids?” Alfred took a step back into Dick’s room and shut the door. Annéall was absolutely still next to Alfred in a way she almost never was. Dick didn’t like it.

“There are things I have heard. What are you asking after, in particular?” Dick untwisted his fingers from the fabric and laced them together instead, holding tight to himself.

“During patrol tonight… I heard about a Separation group down by the docks.” Hearing about it had unsettled Dick enough that he hadn’t noticed one guy pull a knife out. It takes more energy than Dick thought he had to look Albert in the eye. “Have you heard anything about that?”

“I have not.” Annéall doesn’t so much as twitch, but Alfred could still be lying. Not that Dick thinks he is, but he likes the tells that untrained people have. It’s a comfort to know what other people are really thinking.

“If you do- if Bruce has heard anything-” Alfred cut him off.

“I will ask Master Bruce in the morning. I will pass along any information to you after I retrieve you from school.” Alfred straightened up slightly. Dick hadn’t realized he was slouching. “Is there anything else, Master Richard?” Dick squeezed at his hands before pulling them apart.

“Just one thing.” Alfred inclined his head. “Thank you.” Alfred smiled.

“Let us not make a habit out of it. Goodnight, Master Richard.” Dick could barely get his own goodnight wishes out before Alfred was shutting the door, leaving Dick alone.

"You know, it really doesn't look as bad as it feels." Caliste's high voice came from between his fingers, and the short bark of laughter than Dick released relaxed his hands enough for his soul to flutter across the room and land on a perch.

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to explain it in gym class tomorrow." Dick flopped backwards onto his bed, immediately shooting back up as he landed on the stitches. "Fuck, that's going to be annoying." Caliste cooed soothingly from across the room.

"You should really try to sleep. It'll help you heal faster." Dick clapped twice and the lights turned out, leaving only the moonlight streaming in through the bay windows to illuminate the room.

"Good night, Caliste." 

"Good night, Dick."

* * *

It was the following night when Dick came face to face with a kidnapping. There were three thugs, all with canine daemons, carrying a teenager between them. She wasn’t moving, but there was a small corgi curled up on her chest, so Dick figured she was still alive. He sent Caliste to the sky, not wanting to endanger her in the ensuing fight, and then dropped from the rooftop he was on.

“Shit!” One of the masked men turned to face him, but it was nothing to punch him twice in the head, rendering him unconscious, his daemon falling to the alley floor next to him. Dick rolled his left shoulder, stitches sore from the action. Another kidnapper came at him, and Dick bypassed his first grab to kick off from the wall next to him, landing a solid kick to the guy’s jaw. He heard a nightingale’s cry and dropped to the ground, a whistling sound passing right over where his head used to be. A body dropped to the ground, but there was no distinctive puff of Dust that meant he was dead. Dick rolled across the alley, backing himself up against a wall, hoping there would be no more shots.

Another body dropped, but this time from the fire escape across the street. The only details Dick could see were the half-face mask and the long tail of blonde hair trailing out from underneath it. He pulled away from the wall, one eye on the newcomer, and one eye on the unconscious teenager they’d both just saved from being kidnapped.

“Who the hell are you?” Her voice was raspy and deeper than Dick thought it would be. An owl swooped overhead, settling on the fire escape the girl just vacated. It hooted, once, and flew back off.

“I’m no one. Who are you?” The girl crossed her arms over her chest, cocking her hips to the side.

“If you’re no one, then I’m not anyone either.” She looked between him and the kid on the ground. “You saved her. Not just anyone does that.” Dick shifted a little, taking a half-step away from the girl.

“Well, I said I wasn’t anyone, didn’t I?” The girl sighed, her teeth gritting together. “And besides, they were gonna Separate her. Couldn’t have her being another missing kid.” Dick kept edging away, and he could tell the girl noticed, and was letting him. “Now, I’m gonna call the cops and leave.” He’d reached a ladder, and placed a hand on it. The girl shrugged, flicking the end of her ponytail with a finger.

“Fine. Maybe I’ll see you around some other night.” She turned and left out of the mouth of the alley. Dick scaled the building in short order, then looked over the edge to see if he could see the mystery girl. He didn’t see her, but there was an owl circling an alley a few blocks down. Dick spent a few more long moments looking in that direction before holding his hand out for Caliste, turning in the direction of the manor.

* * *

Artemis tugged on the end of her skirt, wishing once again that Gotham Academy didn't require the uniforms they did. Ianeiro resettled himself on her shoulder, his feathers brushing up against her cheek softly. 

"Don't look now, but that boy over there is staring." Artemis didn't let her daemon's voice startle her, even though she was paying attention to absolutely everything but the tawny owl on her shoulder. She let out a sigh, her shoulders moving with the effort.

"Who isn't, right now. New kid syndrome and all." Ianeiro's talons dug a little sharper into her uniform blazer, and Artemis stood up straighter in response. "Yeah, you're right. No use sulking about it now." Artemis did a full turn in place, trying to not be too obvious about looking at the boy Ianeiro had pointed out by scanning the entire campus. He was short, even sitting down, and had no daemon immediately visible, which meant it had to be small. He was sitting next to another girl who had a large doberman resting at her side. 

"There's a small bird between the dog's paws. They're close." Artemis hummed quietly. Daemon's touching other daemons definitely spoke of a familiarity Artemis didn't have with anyone outside of her family. She finished her turn and kept walking, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen that boy before. He seemed awfully familiar. 

"Hey!" Ianeiro had a split second notice to take off from her shoulder before someone was crashing into her. "We'll laugh about this someday." There was a phone camera in her face, taking a picture of her and another person. The flash went off before she could register much more, and the weight at her side was gone, running back to where he had been sitting before. Artemis saw the boy's songbird flying circles around his head, laughter chiming like bells.

"Dick! What was that about?" Artemis heard the red-headed girl chastise her friend, but the boy was still laughing and looking at his phone. Artemis had half a mind to go over there and break the device in front of his face, but Ianeiro resettling on her shoulder stopped her. It wouldn't do to go drawing too much attention. The last thing she needed was to be the weird girl at a school she'd only just started at. Besides, there were more interesting conversations happening just ahead of her.

"Did you hear? Bethany's gone missing." There were two girls loitering just outside the building entrance, talking to each other in hushed tones. Artemis walked closer, pulling the school map she was given and pretending to look around. "Yeah, they said she's been gone since Tuesday." The other girl's jaw dropped open.

"Since Tuesday? Do they have the police looking for her?" The first girl laughed, and it sounded mean. The chipmunk on her shoulder was chittering, too. 

"Of course! Her dad's got everyone out there, but they aren't gonna find her. She's the fourth one to go missing in the past two weeks. They didn't find any of the other kids either." Artemis knew about the disappearances, but she hadn't realized that four of the ten missing kids were students at Gotham academy.

"Oh, jeez. I'm surprised they haven't issued a curfew or anything." The second girl's fox daemon curled around her feet, gnawing at its own paws. "You don't think it's, like, a serial killer or anything, do you, Jen?" Jen scoffed.

"They haven't found any bodies either. And I hope they don't. The last thing we need is another psycho in Gotham." Artemis could barely hide her wince. There were certainly a lot of bad people in Gotham, that was for sure. "And besides-" The bell rang, cutting off whatever Jen was saying, and the two girls went inside the building. Artemis wanted to follow, but she also knew that the two girls wouldn't tell her anything else. They knew less than the police, and that was where Artemis had gotten most of her information.

"We should be extra careful walking home after school. Wouldn't want to get snatched before we know what we're up against." Artemis ran a hand over Ianeiro's feathers distractedly.

"Yeah, I know. Won't stop us from going out tonight, though." Ianeiro ruffled himself before resettling. "Now, come one. We've got class."

* * *

Dick watched the new girl as she came into the geometry class and took a seat a few in front of him. The tawny owl didn't stay on her shoulder, instead settling on one of the many perches situated around the classroom, with his back to the wall. Dick got the sense that he was scanning the classroom for threats.

It was definitely the same girl from the other night. The hair, for one, was unmistakable, as well as her eyes. Dick could barely stop himself from staring, but he couldn’t be weird. Well, weirder than he’d already been that morning, but they would _totally_ laugh one day. At least he knew her name, now that the teacher called roll.

He let his mind wander as their professor explained some concept Dick already knew, instead sketching out the map of the docks in the margin of his paper. He pulled on Caliste’s memories, the perfect bird’s eye view for viewing the layout of warehouses. His eyes kept wandering to the girl, but he kept coming back to a group of warehouses on the southern point of the docks. He’d scope them out tonight, once he finished his homework.

* * *

Dick had his fair share of luck, it seemed, because he was sitting on top of a warehouse filled with unconscious teenagers and several large men holding automatic guns. He felt that luck grow when he saw a tail of blonde hair appear several rooftops over. 

"Eyes sharp, Caliste. She's here." Dick felt the excitement of his daemon, and tried his best not to smile with it.

"I see her owl!" Dick isn't sure if he imagined the sigh Caliste let out. "He's so pretty." He couldn't help but let out a small laugh, before sobering up with the reality of the situation. He stood so that Artemis could see him, and it wasn't long before she was tumbling onto the rooftop next to him. Dick smiled.

"Fancy seeing you here, nobody." Artemis opened her mouth to reply, but got cut off by a commotion in the building below them. Dick ducked back down to peer through the sky light, and resolutely did not react when Artemis crouched near enough to him that her hair brushed against his arm. "Caliste, can you get eyes in there?" The nightingale chirped once, twice, and then Dick heard her reply.

"Yeah, the door is open a little bit. I'm gonna fly in." Dick clenched his hands into fists.

"Please, be careful." Dick felt the brush of care from his daemon.

"Of course. I won't put us in danger." Dick let out a breath, and Artemis looked over at him.

"Will she be safe?" Dick nodded, not trusting himself to speak without letting out more emotion than he could afford at the moment. "Ok." With that, she turned her attention to the floor below, but Dick felt her shoulder settle more solidly against his. He appreciated her small show of support. He focused in on the warehouse floor again when the shouting got louder.

"I want proof that I ain't putting my boys in danger for nothing." It was a large man yelling, and Dick recognized him as Bane, a drug runner that had been in charge of a significant chunk of the Gotham underground for years. "Show us what you got." He was talking to a man in a lab coat, and the man seemed to shrink in front of him.

"Very well. Bring out the machine." The last bit was called to a team of other people in lab coats, who wheeled out a contraption that looked an awful lot like a cage.

"Caliste, what do you have eyes on? We can't let them do whatever they're going to do." Dick felt a small marble of panic in the back of his head, and he realized at once what Caliste was anxious about. Underneath them, a boy about their age was being manhandled into the cage. Bane's hands were wrapped around his daemon's body, a mongoose that was screaming louder than even the boy was. Artemis clutched at his arm, nails digging in.

"We have to stop them!" Dick gritted his teeth, even as he knew she was right. "That's an Incision chamber." Dick looked to Artemis, and realized she looked like she was about to be sick. "They're going to mutilate him, if he even survives." Dick looked around at the other occupants of the warehouse. There were at least three armed men, all with automatic rifles. The scientists could have been armed, too, but Dick doubted they were packing the kind of firepower that would be a big problem.

"Let her go!" The boy was still yelling, writhing in the arms of the scientists, trying and failing to reach his daemon. "Cineara!" The mongoose was screaming back, her voice high and reedy with pain.

"Conner! Conner, it hurts!" Dick couldn't keep watching, had to do something.

"Okay, we're going in, but we have to take out the guards, first. We can deal with the scientists after that, okay?" Dick looked at Artemis, who looked back at him. She nodded, and then turned to where her owl was perched on and broken antenna.

"Ianeiro, you stay by the rafters, okay? No getting in danger." The owl blinked once, but didn't respond. That still seemed to be good enough for Artemis, because she was easing the skylight open, making sure that it didn't squeak to the best of her ability. Dick prepped his grappling hook, securing it on the edge of the window. "Okay. Ready when you are." Dick nodded to her. As one, they descended into the warehouse.

It was chaos. Artemis shot an arrow at one of the guards just as Dick fell on one with his batons. Gunfire went off around them, causing all the other teens in the room to scream. Dick managed to get behind a stack of crates, feeling them rattle with the impact of the bullets.

"Keep going! I'll take care of these runts." Bane turned from the Intercision chamber to face Dick, and something about him was changing. Dick couldn't place his finger on it, only that Bane seemed to get larger, more hulking, slightly deranged. His daemon, a black jaguar, seemed to change as well, looking almost diseased with arteries bulging and eyes turning red.

Dick resettled himself in his stance, knowing that Caliste was staying far overhead and not interfering. Dick only had a moment to brace himself before Bane was rushing him, but Dick was able to sidestep his brute charge easily, ducking just out of reach of those hypertrophied arms. What Dick hadn't been expecting was for Bane's daemon to jump on his back and dig her claws into his cape. Caliste let out a pained shriek overhead, but she didn't come to Dick's aid.

"No, no, please, you can't do this!" The boy was still yelling, curling his fingers through the chain link separating him from his daemon. "Let her go!" The humming of the machinery got louder as a blinding light started to glow along the chain link. Dick rammed the butt of his baton into the jaguar's eye, but it didn't stop Bane from charging him again. Suddenly, a soft blue light came over the room, and Bane fell before Dick, the jaguar behind him falling to the floor, both of them unconscious.

“Help me get him out of there." The man standing before Dick was alone, and he had two glowing blue swords. The material shifted as Dick watched, forming two maces. Then, the other man turned to the Intercision chamber, just as the glowing light reached the daemon inside. He brought down the mace once, twice, a third time, before Dick got with the program and started to try and unplug the machine.

A humming energy came around him, and all of a sudden, all of the guards and scientists around them were on the ground, unresponsive but alive. A redheaded boy in yellow spandex and goggles was next to the other stranger, his hands ghosting through the metal, trying to reach the screaming boy.

"Cineara!" A burst of golden powder came through the chain link and Dick knew they were too late. The boy in the other half of the chamber slumped over. The newcomer froze for all of two seconds before he formed both maces into one large war hammer, swinging it was a strength Dick feared.

"I will get you out of there, friend." And he was right. With two more swings, the metal chamber rent apart, and the man let the war hammer dissolve- was that water? -and he pulled at the tear with his bare hands, pulling the two pieces apart with ease. He reached into the chamber, and the second he touched Conner, there was a roar, and in a, explosion of golden dust, a large white wolf burst out of nothing and fell upon the scientist that had been manning the machine. There was another puff of gold dust, and Dick knew the scientist was dead.

"Cineara?" The voice was soft, but the warehouse had fallen deathly silent with the appearance of the wolf, so Dick had no problem hearing him. "Cineara, what happened to you?" The wolf turned to look at Conner, and when she spoke, Dick recognized the voice of the mongoose this daemon had used to be.

"I don't know. But we're okay. We're going to be okay." The wolf came over to Conner, who was still being held up by the stranger and nuzzled the side of his face. "No one is going to hurt us again."

"Okay, what the hell happened here?" Dick had almost forgotten that Artemis was here in all the commotion. She was looking between the three of them, and when her daemon settled on her shoulder, his eyes did not leave the stranger. "And who are you?"

"I am Kaldur'ahm. You may call me Kaldur." Kaldur had an accent that Dick couldn't place, but he definitely wasn't from Gotham. "I have been called Aqualad by some of the media. You may know me from that." And that was a name Dick knew, had looked at the grainy pictures in the newspaper of the new hero. But there was something about Aqualad that unsettled a lot of people, Dick included if he was honest with himself: he didn't have a daemon. Or, rather, he'd been disconnected from his daemon a few years ago in an accident, and now they were almost never together. Dick couldn't imagine not having Caliste.

"Okay, that explains all the water stuff. And who's he?" The redhead seemed to vibrate where he stood, and a cheetah appeared next to him, rubbing her head along his shins.

“I’m Wally. Speedster extraordinaire and extraordinary speedster. My darling Osegina is also quite fast.” Wally bowed at the waist with a flourish, and Dick couldn’t help but smile. Artemis was less impressed. She lifted an eyebrow and turned to the last stranger, who Kaldur was still holding around the shoulders.

"Okay. So, who are you?" The wolf sat down almost in front of Conner, blocking him from view.

"My name is Conner. I was kidnapped after trying to run away and I was taken here. I assume everyone else here has a similar story." Artemis looked over at the still-unconscious teenagers in the corner.

"We have to get them out of here. Any one trust Gotham police to handle this?" Dick pulled out his phone.

"I trust one of them." Dick dialed Alfred's number, before taking a few steps away from the rest of the group. "Hey, Alfred. It's me." Dick heard the tiny sigh that Alfred tried to cover up by speaking.

"How is your evening going, Master Richard? Do you need assistance?" Dick ran a hand through his hair before holding his hand up for Caliste to land on.

"No, nothing like that. I just need you to call Commissioner Gordon and get him down to the warehouse district. There are a lot of kids that need to get looked after." Dick looked over at the pile. "Tell him he might need a van. And smelling salts." Alfred cleared his throat.

"I will pass the message along. Should I expect you home tonight?" Dick sucked on his teeth, unsure.

“Don’t know. Got some unexpected company, but tell Bruce to stop worrying. I’m fine.” He heard Alfred laugh, and the distant noise of Annéall chittering.

"I will pass that message along as well. Be safe."

"Will do. See you soon." Dick hung up his phone and turned back to the others. “So what now?” Kaldur adjusted Conner where he rested on his shoulder. Wally slid himself under Conner’s other arm, but it didn’t look like he was taking much of the weight.

“We’re gonna take him back with us. You’re all welcome to come with.” Conner turned his head to Wally.

“Who said I’m going anywhere with you?” Cineara turned her head to Wally as well, baring her teeth.

“Be calm, friend. You mentioned running away. We have a home, of sorts, for those displaced.” Kaldur’s voice was low and soothing, and it seemed to work. “You are not the only person to have sought greener pastures.” Cineara turned to Kaldur, but seemed much calmer.

“Okay. Guess you guys can’t be much worse than the last people who took me somewhere.” Wally let out a laugh, the cheetah next to him letting out her own chuckle. Conner looked back to Dick and Artemis. “Wait. Who are you two?” Dick startled, almost forgetting that these people were practically strangers.

“Oh, I’m Dick. This here is Caliste.” Caliste chirped from his shoulder, but didn’t move to say anything more. All of their heads swiveled toward Artemis, who huffed a sigh.

“I’m Artemis. This is Ianeiro. Can we get moving, please?” Wally pulled a phone out of his pocket in response, tapping at the screen. The phone started to ring as he called someone.

“Yeah, for sure. Any of you ever teleported before?” Dick couldn’t tell if he was being serious. Dick looked to Kaldur, who was looking at Wally with a fond smile on his face. “I’ll take the silence as a no. Zee will tell you guys what to do.” As if on cue, whoever was on the other end picked up the phone.

“Hey, Wally! All finished?” The voice on the other end of the line sounded feminine, and there was a significant amount of background chatter.

“Yeah, Zee, we’re all done. Met some new friends, even.” Wally looked at Kaldur, smiling. “Kal-dude invited them back to the house. Got enough juice for five people? I can run back, if you need.” There was a hum from the other end.

“No, I should be good. Might just have to turn in a little earlier tonight. Can you guys all hold hands, and then I’ll bring you over?” Wally adjusted his grip on the phone, gesturing for someone to come to his other side, the one not currently plastered to Conner. Dick made his way over, slotting himself under Wally’s arm. He was warm.

“Yeah, we’re almost there.” Wally slung his arm over Dick’s shoulders, motioning for Artemis to join them. “C’mon, blondie, get over here. And daemons in the middle. Don’t want to leave anyone behind.” Dick's eyes widened. Was he really going to talk that casually about it? “Last time we weren't all accounted for, Mr. Downer over there got Separated. To be fair to all the parties involved in that event, he was also dying, so there wasn't a lot of time to waste. This time, Zatanna is going to make sure we're all ready." Kaldur shifted on Conner’s other side, his eyes rolling.

“Whenever you are all ready, I am sure Zatanna is impatient to begin.” With a pointed look at Wally, Kaldur linked arms with Artemis, closing their circle, Cineara and Osegina in the middle of their circle, both of them plastered to their other halves. “We are ready, yes?” He looked at each of them in turn, only moving on when they nodded back at him. “Zatanna, on your mark.”

“Okay. This might feel a little weird to first timers.” There was the sound of the phone being put down, and Zatanna’s voice got further away. “ _gnirB rudlaK dna yllaW ot em, htiw rieht wen sdneirf dna snomead!”_ The world dropped out from Dick’s feet, and he clenched his eyes shut against the feeling.

“Shit!” The world righted itself with a jerk, and Dick landed on the floor, falling to his hands and knees. Based on the groaning around him, the others suffered a similar feeling.

“Hi everyone! Welcome to our house!” A tall brunette was holding her hand out to Artemis, who accepted the help to her feet. A black cat wound around her legs. “I’m Zatanna. The others are in the kitchen, putting together some food for you all. Once you’re feeling a little more stable, we can get going!” Dick looked around and saw Conner burying his face in Cineara’s ruff. Wally and Kaldur seemed unaffected, though Osegina was missing. In her place, a black rat was sitting on Wally’s shoulder, seemingly unperturbed.

"You haven't settled?" For all that Conner doesn't speak much, when he does, he's about as subtle as a battering ram. Wally looks at him from next to Kaldur and shrugs.

"Nah, it's a side effect of the powers. She used to be a black rat, but then we got doused in chemicals and struck by lightning, and now she can be whatever she wants and I can run faster than sound." Wally shrugs, but Dick can tell that this is a sensitive subject for him. "You know, the usual." 

"Stop being facetious, Wally." It's Zatanna again, but this sounds like an old refrain, so Dick doesn’t think she really means it. "You'll have to excuse him, sometimes his mouth moves faster than his brain." It makes Kaldur and Wally laugh, like it's a running joke between the thee of them, and Dick feels like even more of an outsider than he already did.

"Hey, Kaldur," the voice is coming from the kitchen, and Dick turns to the doorway, where another girl comes out, wearing a black t-shirt and sweatpants. "What did you find at the site?" Kaldur stills for a second, and his eyes dart to and from Conner. He clears his throat.

"Well, they had an Incision chamber, and Bane was there to guard it. I admit that I was unhelpful with the defeat of the mercenaries, but I was able to recover someone from the chamber." Kaldur looked to Conner again, and the set of his shoulders was tight. "Would you like to tell your own story, my friend?" Conner looked at Kaldur, and Dick is unsettled by the intensity of that stare, and he's not even on the other side of it.

"Yeah, if that's cool." Conner's hand finds the ruff of Cineara's neck and holds on there. "Can we just move to the kitchen, first? I wouldn’t mind some water.” Kaldur holds out a hand to lift Conner to his feet, and he begins to lead them all into the other room.

“Look who’s back!” A redheaded guy crowds Kaldur the second he comes in, planting a kiss on his temple. “And who are they?” His smile is easy, though he’s got severe bags under his eyes. He looks oddly familiar, though Dick can’t place it.

“I assume it’s those friends Zatanna mentioned.” Dick looks to where the other voice came from and stops. It’s the same guy, but with a different haircut. Dick looks between the two of them. “Ugh, stop staring, it’s rude.” Dick does his best, but it’s kind of hard. “I’m Roy Harper. That’s my other, Will.” The one next to Kaldur- Will, Dick corrects himself- scoffs. He turns to the new group and leads them further in to the kitchen.

“I’m Will Harper. I’m his clone. Our Separation went a little wonky as kids, so instead of Separating him into man and daemon, he got split into two different souls.” Will pulled a plate of crackers and cheese toward him and picked one up. “Our coven messed up the ritual, a bit.” Oh, they were witches. Dick had heard about witches, but he’d never met one. Will pushed the plate toward them, and gestured to the chairs around the table.

“Sit, y’all! We’ve got a lot to get through tonight!” Raquel came through the door behind them and all but pushed them into chairs. She put several plates of food on the table, all seeming to be filled with sandwich ingredients. “Grab some food, and let’s hear the story.” Once they’d all gotten food on their respective plates, they all turned to Conner.

“I mean, there's some stuff that happened that I don't know how it happened, but I can do my best." Cineara whuffs and settles her head on his knee, closing her eyes.

"Take your time. We are in no rush." Kaldur's voice is soothing, and Conner seems to relax under the tone.

“Well, I told you all I was kidnapped. Beyond that, the Intercision chamber, it all starts blurring together.” Cineara whines high in her throat, and Dick wants to reach his own hands out to calm her. He clenches his hands in his lap instead. “When- when-” Conner breaks off and looks at Kaldur.

“When you were Separated.” Conner cleared his throat once, twice, and then took a sip of water before clearing his throat a third time.

“When we were Separated, it was painful. And then, she was gone. There was nothing where she used to be, and I wasn’t myself anymore.” He took his eyes off of Cineara to look over at Kaldur, like he’s forgotten everyone else was in the room. “And then you touched me, and she came back, and all of a sudden we were strong. Like, super strong.” Kaldur’s face hardens, and he looks towards Raquel and Zatanna.

“Then our hypothesis was correct.” He looks up at the rest of them. “These scientists have somehow found a way to harness the stress of Separation to activate what is known as a meta-gene. The meta-gene allows certain people to gain superhuman abilities.” Dick can feel the tension as it thickens the air. He might still only be human, but he can tell that Kaldur's met his share of people who have been used the same way Conner has.

"But why are they doing this?" Artemis breaks the silence to his right, but there's still a suppressive quality to the air. "What do they stand to gain?" She's still, like she's been carved from stone, and Dick thinks she knows more than she's letting on.

"They want to make weapons." Raquel’s voice is flinty, like Dick might cut himself on it if he’s not careful. "What happened with Conner was a fluke. He was supposed to stay daemon-less, was supposed to be super strong, but easy to control." There's a pause, and Cineara shifts her giant head to look at Raquel.

"Then why did I come back?" She's voicing the question all of them are thinking, and Dick doesn't have anything close to resembling an answer.

"We think it has to do with _how_ you came back. Conner wasn't the only part of you that changed." Zatanna seems to be thinking of the answer even as she's speaking, like she's only just thought about the repercussions of a person's daemon coming back reformed. "You changed shape, right? Maybe that's part of it. Can you change at will?" Dick looks between Cineara and Conner, sees the identical furrow of their brow, and can guess that they're trying to shift.

"No. She's just a wolf, now." Conner sounds tired, like he put all of his effort into trying to make Cineara change shape, when Dick remembers the same thing being effortless as a child. Osegina's fur ripples to turn white and her form grows under Wally's hand. She gets almost half as large as Cineara currently is before she stops, her nose scrunching before she shifts into a cheetah instead. Her head lolls onto Kaldur’s lap, and Dick watches as Kaldur begins to stroke around her nose.

"I can't even get that large. And you guys have seen me turn into some big things." Osegina's voice is high and raspy, but Dick thinks it suits her and Wally. Osegina started to purr when Kaldur reached to scratch behind her ears. Dick looked away. That contact is way too intimate for just friends.

"You're naturally inclined to speed, 'Gina. It makes sense that becoming that big might be uncomfortable for you." Zatanna tries to soothe the daemon, but Dick can tell it's not really working. Not that the daemon seems too perturbed about it, anyway.

"Okay, but why did she change?" Conner is beginning to sound increasingly frustrated, and Dick can't blame him. If Caliste, the literal other half of his soul, changed shape without warning he'd be pretty peeved, too.

"We do not know, yet. It must have something to do with your increased strength. Perhaps she needed a new form to accommodate the changes to yourself." The way Kaldur phrases it makes sense, but there's still an edge to Conner.

"Hello, Raquel! We should have Conner talk to Megan!" Raquel's voice is suddenly loud, like she's excited, and Dick has no clue who Megan is. Another teenage superhero?

“Oh, you’re so right!” Zatanna looked at the rest of them, her hands moving excitedly. “Megan got taken a few months ago, and she changed, too. I mean, her daemon didn’t change, but she got powers but kept Alcinohre.” Dick assumes that Alcinohre is her daemon. “She was going to be coming over tomorrow, anyway. If you don’t mind waiting, I’m sure she’d love to meet you!” Conner shifted in his seat, but nodded. 

“Well, we should get looking into when the next big meeting is.” Will seemed nonchalant as he dragged his fingers along the back of a grey-headed albatross, but his tone was very chalant, so Dick figured he was saying important things. “Kal, you said Bane was at this one, so we’re still dealing with low figures. We need to figure out when the Light is having a meeting and go there.” Dick had no clue who ‘the Light’ was, but they sounded important.

“Indeed. I have some information from their computers, but I doubt any of it is still reliable now that they know they have been compromised.” Kaldur clicked his tongue at something in another room, his whole body turned toward the doorway. A large, grey-headed albatross came through the doorway and bowled into his chest. His arms came around the bird, and Will steadied the two of them to keep them from falling. Even Wally reached over the table to ruffle the bird’s neck feathers. 

“I missed you.” The albatross tucked her head under Kaldur’s chin, and it hit Dick that this was Kaldur’s daemon. Her voice was more hoarse than Dick expected it to be, but he was struck by the memory of hearing about the Separation, how everyone had heard the bird screaming for blocks around. Caliste tucked herself into Dick’s collar, shuddering. 

“As I missed you. But you understand it was beneficial for you to remain here.” A small creature climbs on top of the albatross’s head, and Dick recognizes it as a long-eared hedgehog. There’s also a kinkajou slung around her neck, though Dick recognizes the care taken not to touch the hedgehog. Kaldur touches each of the other daemons in turn and they greet him with chirps and purrs. The albatross pulls the best pout she can with a beak.

“Doesn’t mean I liked it. Phothriem kept trying to go after Petria.” The bird settled more firmly against Kaldur’s chest, and the hedgehog crawled up her head enough to crawl onto Kaldur’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, Phothriem was being kinda mean. But Undica kept me safe.” The hedgehog was standing on her two hind legs, both forepaws touching Kaldur’s cheek. The kinkajou snuggled closer to Kaldur, and the hedgehog turned on him. “And Waeihlif was absolutely no help!” Dick was aware that things were happening outside of Kaldur’s little bubble, that people were still talking, but none of them were talking to him, so he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the three daemons plastered to Kaldur. 

It was so strange to see. Undica was undoubtedly Kaldur’s, but the other two weren’t. Dick couldn’t even place who they were part of because no one in the room had the standard reaction to getting their daemon touched. There was a black cat on Zatanna’s lap, which was probably her daemon, and there was a margay lounging on the kitchen windowsill, but Dick didn’t know whose it was.

“Hey, Dick!” Artemis snapped her fingers in front of his face several times. “You paying attention?” Dick startled and looked back to her. Wally and Zatanna were also staring at him, so he’d been caught staring at Kaldur for much too long. “We were going to go sort out the sleeping situation.” Dick nodded, collecting his plate. He rose, Caliste digging her talons into his shirt.

Wally led them through the kitchen, where they all dropped their plates in the sink for Will to take care of. Then, they went up a staircase and down a hallway that seemed to stretch longer than Dick felt it should. Zatanna pulled open a few doors, depositing people inside of them as she went. She entered a room with Artemis, talking about pajamas. 

“The interior seems different from the exterior?” Dick couldn’t help the way his voice rose at the end, and Caliste cooed for emphasis. Wally threw his head back, laughing.

“Yeah. That was Zee; we didn’t have enough space for all of us and Megan coming in a few months ago, so she just expanded a little bit.” His smile is bright and Dick feels himself smiling back. He pushes open the last door and brings Dick into a room with cream walls and navy sheets on the bed. There’s a large desk with a lamp and a rolling chair, and Dick wonders how the room populated itself to look so much like his childhood bedroom. “The magic can be a little weird when it interacts with guests. It mostly fits itself to the person’s needs.” Wally goes on about how he doesn’t think Zatanna’s brand of magic is real, that there’s a totally scientific reason she can do what she does, but Dick kind of tunes him out a little bit. There’s a pause and Dick looks back to Wally.

“So, uh, pajamas?” Dick wouldn’t mind sleeping in his boxers, but he did just fight crime in them so he would like to shower and change. Wally looks Dick up and down, eyes wide. He zooms out of the room, but before Dick can really miss him, he’s back with some flannel bottoms and a henley.

“Showers are across the hall, towels are in the cupboard underneath the sink.” Wally’s talking so fast that Dick only gets about every other word, but he can guess.

“Awesome, thanks. Uh, I’ll just get going on that then.” Dick takes the clothes from Wally and waves them a little bit, but Wally is still standing in front of him. “Wally?” No response. “Wally?” Dick pokes him in the chest, and that gets him to jerk back to awareness.

“Yep, sorry, I’ll be right out, bye!” More fast talk that Dick has to take a moment to process, but Wally’s already gone, so Dick just goes to shower.

* * *

It’s the next morning, and Dick is actually one of the last ones awake. He wakes up to a rat on his pillow, poking at his cheek. It takes a lot to not swat the rat away, but he’s thankfully awake enough to realize it’s Osegina.

“Um, hi?” Dick doesn’t really touch other people’s daemons, no matter how cuddly everyone else in this weird house is. “Where’s Wally?” He looks around his room, arm already halfway up for Caliste to land in his palm before he realizes what woke him up.

Dick races downstairs, still in his pajamas, to see Undica delicately preening Caliste, who is letting out soft chirps of contentment with every pass. It’s a chain, Dick sees, because the kinkajou is preening Undica and Zatanna’s cat is grooming the kinkajou.

“Um?” Dick tries not to shiver at the feeling of a beak going through feathers he doesn’t have, but it’s tough. No one’s touched Caliste in such a long time. The sensation stops abruptly, and Caliste lets out a warble at the loss.

“I apologize. Undica has a mind of her own, and your nightingale took a shine to her.” Kaldur is standing a little off to Dick’s right. “I should have been paying more attention.” Dick swallows, and tries not to wretch at the sudden absence of the comforting happiness of his daemon. Kaldur has his hands up, almost placating, and Dick wonders briefly what his face looks like. Dick swallows again and looks Kaldur in the eye.

“It’s fine. I just didn’t realize what the feeling was.” The moment Dick says he’s okay with it, Undica goes back to preening Caliste. It feels like someone is dragging their nails lightly down Dick’s scalp to the top of his spine, and it almost tickles, but not quite.

“Where’s Osegina?” Wally’s seated at the table with a new person on his other side. She’s green. He looks at Dick like he’s expecting him to be holding her, even though he’d feel if that was the case.

“Oh, she’s still upstairs, I think.” Dick looked back up the staircase to see a lynx plodding down the stairs. “Here she is.” Dick backed out of Osegina’s way, but the daemon took the extra step toward him to rub her face against Dick’s knees.

“‘Gina, that’s rude. We don’t scent mark people without their permission.” Wally is red all the way down his neck, and Dick kind of, sort of, wants to see how far down that flush goes, but it is way too soon, Dick met this kid literally last night.

“But his knees are so bony!” Dick doesn’t know if it’s an insult or a compliment, but Osegina just rubs her face against Dick’s knees one more time before leaping up onto the windowsill next to Zatanna’s cat, joining the grooming chain.

“Anyway,” Artemis interrupts Dick’s weird fugue, “We figured out where the next meeting  _ probably _ is.” She points at something on the laptop screen in front of her. Raquel picks up where she left off.

“It’s in a week, and it Separated only, so we’ve gotta plan for that. If you’re in, you can meet us at the condemned warehouse on 36th avenue. You also have to practice being apart from your daemon. We need hard numbers about how far you can go before you can’t focus. We won’t send anyone who can’t do it.” Raquel puts a hand on her hip. “Clear?” Dick nods.

“Yeah. I’ll be there. Anything else?” Raquel looks back at the screen. 

“Oh, yeah, Megan’s here.” Megan turns out to be incredibly nice, despite the green-ness. It turns out that Alcinohre, her chameleon, is also incredibly nice. She’s also telepathic, so there’s that, Dick supposes. She reads his mind enough to tell him that the green-ness came after the Separation. Good to know, Dick thinks, and then decides not to think anything else until he gets home.

* * *

Dick doesn’t like what they’re about to walk into, he would like to make that very clear. It’s his fourth time making it very clear when Artemis punches him in the shoulder to get him to stop talking.

“You’re stressing us all out, Boy Wonder, so chill out.” Her arms crossed over her chest, but Ianeiro’s puffed up feathers betray her own distress. Good to know he’s not the only one freaking out about having to pretend to be Separated, to pretend to be daemon-less entirely, for the night. The warehouse they’re approaching has all of the windows covered up, and Dick is willing to bet that the air vents on the roof are blocked, too. Good thing Dick and Caliste worked hard over the past week to reach a solid 50 feet apart. There’s no way this will work.

“What if this doesn’t work?” It’s Conner, which isn’t fair, because he isn’t even coming into the warehouse. His daemon can’t move as easily as all of the others, so he’s been relegated to watch duty. They can also only go ten feet apart before one of them starts to fidget. Megan is staying behind with him to make sure he doesn’t lose his patience and blow the whole op.

“Our plan will work, my friends. Do not worry.” Again, the anger swells in Dick’s chest, because Kaldur really is Separated; he won’t feel any of the pain they will from being so far from their daemons. Undica hadn’t even come with them to the warehouse, had stayed behind in Kaldur’s apartment with Roy to watch over her. The feeling dies just as quickly, because Zatanna had told Dick the circumstances of Kaldur’s Separation. Even with all the pain Dick will be in tonight, it would never compare to Kaldur’s.

“Okay, alpha team, you ready?” Kaldur, Dick and Wally look between each other before giving the all clear. “Okay, you can go in with this group coming up. See them?” It’s a group of fifteen or so kids their age, all daemon-less. He suppressed a shiver. “Okay, go.” Dick followed Kaldur into the crowd just as they passed the alley. None of the kids seemed to really notice them, or if they did, they didn’t seem to care.

“Alpha team secure.” Kaldur’s voice was low over the mental link, and Dick tried to remain calm as he felt the tension grow in his bond with Caliste. It was like a rubber band stretching. Eventually, he knew, it would snap. He just hoped they’d be able to finish up before that happened.

“Beta team, I see another group coming up in about seven minutes. Prepare for go.” Megan’s voice was strong over the link, and Dick tried to focus on that as they came up to the doors. There were Dust detectors, like they’d seen. Dick made an effort to breathe normally as the three of them passed through, but it was a lot easier to pretend once they were on the other side of the door.

Dick just tried to lose himself in the crowd, scoping out the key players of the Light, but it was hard to focus with the tension crowding in the back of his head. Wally grabbed onto his hand and squeezed. Dick felt a little better with the contact, and squeezed back. Kaldur looked vaguely uncomfortable, but Dick figured that was due to the very serious mission they were on.

“Beta team secure.” Artemis’s voice comes into Dick’s brain, and it’s another thing to focus on that isn’t the increasing pain. “God, this blows.” Dick sympathizes, because she’d only been able to get 50 feet as well. Wally’d gotten 60, and Zatanna 45. The stakes raised as the pain increased with time. There was also no telling how far they could go before the tension broke and they were Separated for real, instead of just pretending.

“Anyone got eyes on anything?” It was strange to talk mentally, but not hard to do. It was kind of like pointed thinking. “Like, literally, anything?” There were a lot of negative answers, but Kaldur piped up with good news.

“I have eyes on Luthor and Klarion. The latter has a creature with him, but I cannot speak to its Dust status.” There’s a pause, and Dick hears the mental equivalent of Kaldur grinding his teeth together. “I also see the one called Black Manta.” Dick followed Kaldur’s line of vision and his eyes landed on the man in black armor. He kept searching and also found Luthor and Klarion. Just beyond them, if he really squinted, was Queen Bee.

“I’ve got a lock on Queen Bee, I think. She’s just behind them, by the curtains.” Wally’s head turned next to Dick.

“Yeah, looks like her. Anyone see anyone else?” Dick can’t see the others, doesn’t want to bring attention to himself or to them by looking around, so he keeps his eyes floating around what’s in front of him.

“I see Al Ghul. And his freaky bodyguard.” Artemis’s disdain is clear in her mental voice. Dick has to agree, though, that bodyguard is a little intense.

“And I see Savage.” Zatanna sounds scared, but Savage’s list of crimes is taller than Dick, so he can’t blame her. “So we’re all accounted for.” A small murmur goes through all of their heads, each of them allowing their own fear to show through the slightest bit. Megan clears her throat, which is super weird to hear in his head, and then she starts directing them.

“Kaldur, you’ll be in charge of drawing them out onto the floor. Will, Roy, and Conner are three blocks away in case anyone tries to make a run for it. I’ve got you guarded at the door.” Kaldur begins to move toward the center of the floor. “Wally, Dick, Artemis, get to a comfortable space. Once this gets going, Zatanna will blow the windows out so your daemons can get in. Raquel, you’re in charge of stopping Klarion.” Dick stops looking at Kaldur to make his own way to a wall. He can feel Caliste moving outside. “On your mark, Kaldur.”

“Any last thoughts?” Kaldur’s voice is steady, and Dick is thankful for his solidity. 

“Wait, actually.” Wally’s looking at Dick from across the room as he stops their entire operation. “We should all totally date.” There’s sputtered laughter along the link, though Dick can’t tell who it’s from. “I’m being serious! Half of us are already together! Once this is done, we should sit down and plan out some dates.” There’s a great sigh heaved along the line. Definitely Kaldur’s.

“I will continue with the mark.” Kaldur continues to move forward, and Dick sees the moment Black Manta recognizes him. “Three.” Manta starts to move toward Kaldur, and Dick can feel Caliste fluttering just above the window. “Two.” Kaldur reaches into his jacket and pulls out his water bearers, just as Manta starts to point at him. “Mark.”

Everything descends into chaos. Kaldur gets a shield up in time to deflect Manta’s plasma beam. Raquel begins to float, outlined in pink, and traps Klarion inside one of her bubbles. Zatanna chants in her backwards language and all of the wood blocking the windows explodes out at once, and then daemons are leaping through the windows. All the tension leaks out of Dick’s brain. Wally speeds towards Luthor, and Artemis is already aiming at Al Ghul. Dick figures he should go after someone, and he’s closest to Savage, so he pulls out his batons and goes in. It leaves Queen Bee unaccounted for, but Will is really the only one of them not in danger of falling to her powers, so they’re gonna wait on that one. 

Dick loses track of the others as he squares up to Savage. He’s not expecting to win this, not really. But once Kaldur had called mark, Megan had messaged Alfred to get the Gotham police force to their location. He just has to hold out for the next fifteen minutes. Savage pulls out a wicked looking sword. Dick does his best not to freeze, but he’s never actually gone up against a master swordsman before.

“I wouldn’t mind some back up, right now. Preferably Conner, not gonna lie.” Dick hopes Conner comes through soon, because Savage is incredibly fast, and it’s taking all his concentration just to block. He’s a little grateful that none of the Light have any daemons, because that would be another thing to worry about.

“Incoming.” Conner gives him all of two seconds to flip away from the wall before he’s crashing through the concrete and into Savage. Cineara follows close behind him, throwing all her weight to knock Savage off of Conner. It’s all the distraction Dick needs to stab Savage with a syringe full of enough elephant tranquilizers to kill a regular human. Wally figured it would slow Savage down enough for them to trap him inside of one of Raquel’s bubbles.

“Whenever you’re ready, Raquel!” Dick spares a moment to glance at where he thinks Raquel is, only to be thrown halfway across the floor. He should have waited for the tranq to take effect, probably. He gets up, head ringing, and sees Wally in front of him.

“You okay, Dick?” Wally’s focusing pretty hard on keeping Luthor away from Dick, and he pulls a pretty impressive combination that leaves Luthor reeling on the floor.

“I’m fine. Switch?” Wally’s laugh is out loud as he grabs Dick’s hand to fling him at where Luthor is just regaining his bearings. The kick across his jaw definitely didn’t help with that. Lex Luthor falls to the floor, and doesn’t get back up.

“One down. How’s everyone else doing?” Dick gets several grunted replies back, so he decides to help Artemis take down Ra’s Al Ghul, while Wally speeds off to help Conner with Savage. The bodyguard is already down, smoke dissipating around him, but Al Ghul is dodging effectively. “On three, Arty?” Ianeiro hoots from the rafters, and Dick takes it for the affirmation it is. He counts in his head as Artemis nocks another arrow. 

Dick’s count is up and he throws an expanding net at Al Ghul from behind, the cord knotting around his knees as Artemis fires an arrow at Al Ghul’s feet. Upon impact, the arrowhead explodes into an expanding foam that locks up around Al Ghul even as he attempts to struggle against it. Artemis pistol whips him with the end of her bow, and it’s two down.

“Black Manta is subdued. Who requires assistance?” Kaldur straightens from where he was checking over Manta’s prone form.

“Queen Bee’s out, too. Can’t do much when you’re gay, apparently.” Will’s remark startles a laugh out of Dick, and he claps a hand over his mouth.

“I’ve almost got Klarion. Zee, you ready?” Raquel and Zatanna seem to have the witch kid covered as bright lights start sparking on the other side of the warehouse. Dick makes his way to where Conner and Savage are locked in a stalemate, Wally bouncing off of Savage in attempts to distract him. Artemis is right behind him, her voice in their heads.

“I’ll go for his knees.” Artemis already has an arrow nocked, aim precise as she looses it. The arrow flies true, striking right through one of Savage’s knees. Another fletching sprouts from his other knee, and he falls to the ground. 

“I’ve got more tranquilizers. Give me a sec.” Dick reaches into his hip pouch and pulls out another syringe. Wally snatches it from him, and Dick barely sees him as he jabs it into Savage’s neck.

“I think he’s actually slowing down this time.” Conner considers Savage for a moment before he leaps straight up into the air. As he comes down, Dick sees him wind up for the right hook of a lifetime. Savage gets knocked out cold. Conner shakes his hand out, and Dick can already see the bruise forming.

“We’ve got Klarion. Sort of.” As the rest of them rush to Zatanna and Raquel, it’s clear where the ‘sort of’ comes in. Zatanna’s got him trapped in some kind of magic circle that all of them take care not to get too close to. He’s bound with several kinds of magical energy, and he’s snarling behind where one of them has gagged him. The creature is gone, and there’s Dust clinging to the lapel of Klarion’s suit. Freaky.

Sirens begin to sound outside, and the eight of them all look at each other. They run out the back, collecting Will and Roy on the way to where Megan is hiding.

By the time Gotham police gets inside, the Team is already gone, not a trace of them or their daemons left behind.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone wondering, yes, Black Manta is still Kaldur's father. Feel free to ask me for deets, but Kaldur was deffo fighting him when he got Separated. It's a point of contention for the two of them.
> 
> I live for comments, and I wouldn't be opposed to writing some more stuff for this verse if y'all wanted to see anything particular! Okay, I'm out <3


End file.
